Beans Beans Beans

Beans! I love me some beans. I love refried beans with some Mexican food, Red Beans and Rice or Black Eyed Peas and Rice with some Greens and Pulled Pork or some Hummus with Falafal, oh I could go on but I better stop. Thinking of some Pulled Pork or a Shrimp Poboy, has just made me have a sudden pang of homesickness and of course made my mouth water. Ooh, I know what  . . .a Oyster Po Boy. yummmm . . Now the mouth watering has taking over the homesickness. It was short lived.

Back to the beans. . .  

I have always eaten beans, and besides when I make soups, I have always just popped open a can, when ever I wanted some beans. It is just quick and easy to get them out of a can, right? 

Right! But is that really the best way to get your beans? I have been slowly working on a healthier diet and I have always been cool with the canned beans, but it just seems healthier if not just cooler to prep your own. So I started this spring prepping my own beans, but it wasn't until the daily green's food blog discussed the risks of canned food that I really started to take it seriously. I now consider this as a lifelong change. If the health benefits don't sway you maybe the fact that it is way cheaper to buy raw beans than canned.

For example, this bag cost me €1.95. Once cooked the beans in the bag are equivalent to 5 to 6 cans of beans (€0.59each).  
Side track: That's €2.95 to €3.54 worth of canned beans for a third the price. I buy the larger bags, which I will be doing from now on, the saving increase. 
The '5 to 6 can equivalent' sounds high, I know! The first time I prepped beans at home, I poured out the whole bag. That was a mistake. I had so many beans I had to store the beans in three different plastic containers. I had frozen 'prepped' pinto beans for months. Take if from me, prep only what you will be using in the coming week or two, or you will be buried in beans!

So to prep the beans, you pour out the desired amount into a bowl or plastic container. This time I used a fourth of the bag.

Then you add water, well above the beans and let them soak over night. I prefer to use plastic ware so I can close it and put it in the fridge. I don't have to worry about knocking it over accidentally.

The next day boil the now engorged beans until they are cooked all the way through. The time on this varies, just keep the water level up so they don't burn.

Pintos are cool to cook, in my observations they are pretty much done, when you blow on them and they spaz out. I mean when the skin cracks and curls back. I wouldn't be surprised if this phenomenon also happens to other beans, but as of yet, I have only dealt with chickpeas (no spazing there) and pinto beans. I just haven't gotten yet to the other beans out there. I just recently finished the last of the Jumbo supply of beans from my first attempt. I still have a bag of chickpeas and one of pintos to get through. It may be some time before I get something different but I think I will be picking up another bag o' beans next time I hit the store.

Once the beans are done cooking and have cooled off I pack them away in the freezer. These beans are really only for my salads. Stored in the freezer they stay fresh.

The beans are now just as easily accessible as the caned beans had been. When I want to add some to a salad, I put what I want of the frozen beans into a small dish, like the one in the photo above, and then pour hot water on them. By the time my salad is fixed and garnished the beans have dethawed and are even a little warm themselves.

I have to say, I really enjoy prepping my own beans. It makes me feel more connected to my food and surprisingly it makes me appreciate them. That, these beans are now edible because of the effort I put into them. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I would never feel from popping open a can.